ONE
Record
This story starts with a curse.
Actually, my life apparently started with a curse. Or as a curse. My parents like to mix it up and it gets confusing sometimes.
That’s what I’ve been hearing my whole life anyway. My parents hadn’t wanted kids. They were musicians and to hear them tell the story; they were days away from being discovered and making it big.
Then my dad broke up with his girlfriend, slept with my mom, and as the tale goes, his ex-girlfriend placed a curse on him.
I never really believed the story. Well, not all of it anyway. I was born eight months later, so either they got the dates wrong, or my dad was cheating on his girlfriend long before they broke up and she cursed him.
I had friends who used to tell me that it was all bullshit. That there wasn’t a curse and that my parents were just blaming everything on me. I can’t exactly argue with that, but when you grow up hearing about how you ruined everything, you kind of start to believe it.
So, when my car breaks down, sputtering and smoking as I steer it over to the side of the road, I’m not even surprised. Bad luck seems to follow me, so of course my car will crap out when I’ve only been on the road for a few hours.
I pull over right next to the Destiny Falls town sign and sigh. Looks like I’ll be calling a tow truck. I know next to nothing about cars or engines and even if I did, it might not be safe to try to fix it myself. I’m liable to break something or injure myself in some way.
I grab my phone and pull up Google to search for the nearest mechanic shop when it hits me.
Destiny Falls.
That’s the town that my college friend, Madelyn is from. I think she and Flynn moved back up here after graduation.
I bite my lip. I’ve barely talked to her since graduation. We’ve been texting, but that’s about it. Would it be weird for me to call her? I mean, I would love to see her while I’m stuck here.
I pull up her number and hit dial before I can second guess myself. Madelyn was my suitemate in college. She had the room next to me in the dorms and she used to let me hang out over there when my roommate had company or got to be a little too much.
It was always her and Flynn and I wonder if they’ve realized that they’re in love with each other yet. I smile at that thought. It was always painfully obvious that they were crazy about each other, but neither would admit it. They always insisted that they were just friends, but no one with eyes would believe that.
“Record!” Madelyn answers and I grin at her excitement.
“Madelyn!” I parrot back in the same tone and she laughs.
“It’s been too long. I was just telling Flynn that we should call you or maybe make a trip down to Grand Rapids to see you.”
“I’m actually not there anymore.”
“Really? Did you get a new job? Did some rich patron offer to sponsor you so you can just paint all day?”
“No, not quite. I just needed a change of scenery.”
“So, you finally got away from your parents then,” she says flatly and I bite my bottom lip.
Madelyn and Flynn are the only ones that I’ve really opened up to about my family and even then, I only gave them the bare minimum of details. They don’t know any of the truly terrible things that my curse has caused my family. It was still more than enough for both of them to hate my family and urge me to get away.
I want to tell her about everything that’s been happening in the last two years. I used to think that when I went away to college, that the curse would follow me too and leave my family alone but that’s not what happened.
My parents and sister have hated me for all of the bad luck that I’ve brought my family, and I can’t say that I blame them.
My sister, Callie, has always been the golden child. She was the one that they planned, that they wanted. It’s hard to be around them and see them be good parents to her.
Meanwhile, I’m treated as the family scapegoat.
All because of a curse that took place before I was even born.
Everything is always my fault in some way, and I just couldn’t take it any longer. I knew that I had to leave, so I packed up everything in my tiny room and left. My parents and Callie would be better off without me and my bad luck in their lives.